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Ribbon Communications US LLC is a
public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...
that makes software, IP and optical networking solutions for service providers, enterprises and critical infrastructure sectors. The company was formed in 2017, following the merger of Genband and Sonus Networks and is headquartered in
Plano, Texas Plano ( ) is a city in Collin County, Texas, Collin County and Denton County, Texas, United States. It had a population of 285,494 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is a principal city of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Hist ...
.


History

Ribbon Communications was the combination of two companies, each of which had acquired other businesses over their history.


Ribbon Communications

Ribbon Communications was founded in October, 2017, following the merger of Genband and Sonus Networks in May. Ray Dolan initially headed the combined company, while Walsh led the Kandy business unit. By December, Dolan, who had led Sonus since 2010, resigned. Franklin (Fritz) W. Hobbs was appointed as president and CEO of the combined organization and served in that role until November 2019. In January 2018, the company announced that its session border controllers would be used in the virtual network services of
Verizon Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas ...
. In 2018 Ribbon also acquired Edgewater Networks. In November 2019, Ribbon announced it would acquire
ECI Telecom ECI Telecom Ltd is an Israel-based manufacturer of telecommunications equipment that provides packet optical transport products, software-defined networking applications, cybersecurity and professional services. History The Electronics Corpora ...
from
Shaul Shani Shaul Shani ( he, שאול שני; born c. 1955) is an Israeli businessman in the technology industry, and the owner of Swarth Group. Early life Shaul Shani was born circa 1955. He grew up in Kiryat Eliezer, Haifa. His father worked at the Port ...
for $486 million in cash and stock. The company completed the merger in March 2020. In February 2020, Bruce McClelland was named president, CEO and director. A years later, Ribbon moved its headquarters to Plano, Texas. In August 2020, AVCTechnologies announced an agreement to buy Kandy Communications Business. The transaction was completed in December 2020.


Genband

General Bandwidth was founded in 1999 by Paul Carew, Brendon Mills, Ron Lutz and Steve Raich in
Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
and received initial
venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...
funding of $12 million. The company raised over $200 million in four rounds of venture funding and grew to over 200 people by 2003. In 2004, Mills resigned and was replaced as CEO by Charles Vogt. In March 2006, General Bandwidth changed its name to Genband, Inc. and moved its headquarters to
Plano, Texas Plano ( ) is a city in Collin County, Texas, Collin County and Denton County, Texas, United States. It had a population of 285,494 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is a principal city of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Hist ...
. Genband started as a media gateway
vendor In a supply chain, a vendor, supplier, provider or a seller, is an enterprise that contributes goods or services. Generally, a supply chain vendor manufactures inventory/stock items and sells them to the next link in the chain. Today, these terms ...
selling the G6 media gateway, but eventually branched out to
IP switching A multilayer switch (MLS) is a computer networking device that switches on OSI layer 2 like an ordinary network switch and provides extra functions on higher OSI layers. The MLS was invented by engineers at Digital Equipment Corporation. Switch ...
, IP applications, IP Multimedia Subsystem and
session border controller A session border controller (SBC) is a network element deployed to protect SIP based voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) networks. Early deployments of SBCs were focused on the borders between two service provider networks in a peering environme ...
s. In August, 2006, Genband acquired Syndeo and Baypackets (headquartered in
Fremont, California Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area, Fremont has a population of 230,504 as of 2020, making it the fourth List of cities and towns in the San Fra ...
, with employees mostly in India). In October, 2006 it acquired the digital central office products known as
Siemens DCO The Siemens DCO (digital central office) electronic telephone switch was introduced in 1977 by Stromberg-Carlson, having been conceived by its new president, Leonard A. Muller, an ex IBM senior executive who infused Stromberg with his new digital ...
. In 2007, Genband acquired Tekelec’s switching group, which expanded product offerings in
application software Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a c ...
and SIP trunking gateways. In 2008, the company acquired
Nokia Siemens Networks Nokia Networks (formerly Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN)) is a multinational data networking and telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Espoo, Finland, and wholly owned subsidiary of Nokia Corp ...
’ Surpass HiG media gateway product portfolio, including fixed-line trunking media gateways. The company concluded 2008 with the acquisition of NextPoint Networks, which included session border controller (SBCs) and security gateway offerings. In May, 2010, Genband purchased Nortel Networks' carrier VoIP and application business for an estimated net $182 million after Nortel became bankrupt. Existing shareholder One Equity Partners assisted in financing. In June, 2010, Genband was re-incorporated as Genband, Inc, and disclosed an equity investment from executives and board members of about $4 million. In December, 2010 it moved its headquarters to
Frisco, Texas Frisco is a city in Collin and Denton counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and about from both Dallas Love Field and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Its population was 200,509 at the 2 ...
, keeping its Plano campus as a design center. Both are near
Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...
. In January, 2011, Genband acquired Cedar Point Communications in Derry, New Hampshire. In September 2014, Genband announced Kandy.io, cloud-based, real-time software support communications marketed as
platform as a service Platform as a service (PaaS) or application platform as a service (aPaaS) or platform-based service is a category of cloud computing services that allows customers to provision, instantiate, run, and manage a modular bundle comprising a computin ...
(PaaS). In 2012, Genband acquired Aztek Networks, a switch maker specializing in hardware that allows for a smoother transition from legacy to IP networks. Genband was named the top-ventured capital backed company by the Wall Street Journal out of nearly 6,000 companies that were considered. In 2013, Genband acquired Fringland Ltd., provider of the Fring! app, an over-the-top (OTT) mobile IP
communications service provider A telephone company, also known as a telco, telephone service provider, or telecommunications operator, is a kind of communications service provider (CSP), more precisely a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that provides telecommunica ...
. Two years later, it announced the Fring Alliance, a community promoting communications service providers to provide
instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...
, voice and video services to their subscribers. Charles Vogt left Genband in 2013 and David Walsh added the CEO position to his other already held title of Chairman. In 2014, Genband acquired uReach Technologies, a provider of
unified communications Unified communications (UC) is a business and marketing concept describing the integration of enterprise communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, voice (including IP telephony), mobility features (including e ...
and messaging, and introduced unified communications products and services for business customers. In May 2015, Genband was named in
CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...
’s "disruptor" list. In 2016, it was involved in a patent dispute with
Metaswitch Metaswitch Networks is a private UK-based company which was acquired by Microsoft in July 2020. Metaswitch Networks designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed telecommunications software to communication service providers, equipment manufa ...
. In September, 2016, pre-packaged software using the Kandy technology were announced, called "Kandy wrappers".


Sonus Networks

Sonus Networks, Inc. was founded in August 1997 by Jay Pasco-Anderson, Karl Schwiegershausen, Michael G. Hluchyj, Rubin Gruber and Tony Risica. Hluchyj was chief technology officer, Gruber served as president until November 1998, when Hassan M. Ahmed became CEO and chairman. There were no revenues until the quarter ending in March 2000, with accumulated losses of about $50 million against $1.1 million revenues. On May 31, 2000, Sonus had its
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
(IPO), raising over $100 million. It was listed on
Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
with the symbol SONS. At the time (near the end of the
dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...
), it was located in
Westford, Massachusetts Westford is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was at 24,643 at the time of the 2020 Census. History Westford began as 'West Chelmsford', a village in the town of Chelmsford. The village of West Chelmsfor ...
. In January 2001, Sonus acquired Anousheh Ansari's firm Telecom Technologies, Inc., in an all-stock deal. Sonus subsequently integrated TTI's soft switch technology INtelligentIP into its own packet telephony suite. In 2008, Richard Nottenburg joined as chief executive. A product called a network border switch was announced in 2003, and updated in 2006. In August 2012, Sonus acquired Network Equipment Technologies, Inc., for approximately $42 million. The acquisition complemented their existing SBC line with the NET UX series for SIP Trunking and SIP-based UC. On December13, 2013, Sonus agreed to acquire Performance Technologies Inc entered into a definitive merger agreement, under which Sonus will acquire PT for $3.75 per share in cash, or approximately $30 million. In 2014 Sonus acquired Performance Technologies, moving into the diameter signaling market. In 2016 Sonus Networks Inc., acquired Taqua expanding its soft switching portfolio.


Kandy

Kandy is a cloud communications platform created by Genband in September 2014. The Kandy platform includes Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) and Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) assets. The platform also includes pre-built customer engagement tools, based on WebRTC technology, called Kandy Wrappers.  The platform offers white-labeled services to Communication Service Providers (CSPs) and Systems Integrators (SIs).  As such, Kandy Partners typically sell these to their end customers under their own brands. Kandy was formed when GENBAND announced the launch of its real-time software development communications platform in September 2014. Initially only focused on CPaaS, the scope of the platform was quickly expanded to include GENBAND's Nuvia UCaaS offer, rebranded Kandy Business Solutions (KBS).  After the 2017 merger Ribbon Communications maintained the Kandy offerings and Kandy sub brand for its cloud portfolio.


References


External links

* {{Official website, ribboncommunications.com Networking hardware companies Companies based in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Westford, Massachusetts Telecommunications companies established in 2017 Networking companies of the United States Telecommunications equipment vendors